Early Childhood Intervention in a State of Emergency. Continuity and discontinuity during the Coronavirus pandemic

With the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, community-based early childhood intervention services faced serious challenges. Measures to protect against infection, especially contact restrictions, made both the counselling and care of families, as well as networking tasks more difficult - work that relies heavily on personal encounters. At the same time, the stress in families increased, not least due to the loss of external childcare and support. This article examines the extent to which the measures to combat the pandemic affected the delivery of support services for families. The article is based on the findings of 20 qualitative interviews with network coordinators who were recruited nationwide. The interviews were conducted between 8/2020 and 8/2021. In addition, the results of an online survey of all German youth welfare offices as part of the NZFH municipal survey 2021 are included, in which questions covered also the concrete impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on early intervention on the ground. The results show that the Covid-19 pandemic has strengthened digitalisation processes in early childhood intervention, whereby it became apparent that levels of technical equipment varied greatly amongst the municipalities. Another noticeable result refers to the commitment and creativity of the professionals, who quickly adapted their working methods in order to continue to reach families and provide them with the best possible support. Finally, recommendations that can be derived from these experiences are discussed.